Saturday, 26 August 2017

WEB WAR is the new word in the dictionary of a
techno savvy which probably talks about a surreptitious smash of digital hearts. It means a war
of words. It’s a much
quieter act of violence which begins with just an error message here and a
disconnected server there, ending up by making the governments
crippled. It has proved to be a bane for the countries.

Estonia, a small country in the Northern Europe,
believes in the cashless system. From the deposition of fee to transport, from
buying household goods to selling, transportation, hospitals each and
everything goes cashless in this country. Pioneering e-government and Internet
voting, they’re a world leader in utilizing the Internet freedom.

In
2007, their system had to bear a setback as with an unprecedented speed, the
website of their largest selling newspaper was brought to its knees. It was
convulsed, crashed, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of a wave of internet
traffic which couldn’t be supported by it. A
horde of computers numbering in the hundreds of thousands were enslaved by
hackers to act as a weapon for a botnet master to knock the networks down.
Botnet; a network of private computers infected with malicious software and
controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge. Within no time span, the
botnets hit banks, broadcasters, police, and the government. The parliament and
ministries networks were overwhelmed, government’s communication network was
acquainted with. The national emergency number got buckled up. It Created havoc
in every single citizen of Estonia as they were unable to buy, pay, commute or
get treated in the hospitals.

A beginning of web war. Unbelievable!

America and Israel created STUXNET and destroyed centrifuges
pushing the Iran’s nuclear program almost two years behind. President of Iran Ahmadinejad ordered to build
a strong cyber army to respond back to USA on 4 December 2011. The army hacked UAV,
an aircraft piloted by remote control or onboard computers. It was brought down
by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the
aircraft and safely landed it,

Even India did not remain untouched with it. In July
2012, India’s power grid failed affecting 300 million people, which was the
largest power outage in the history. It resulted in the halting of everything
from railways to mines, from metro rails to the hospitals. Millions of people
suffered in blackout.

Later on, the secret agencies came to know that it was China’s cyber army
behind the attack.

A CIA’s (Central Intelligence agency) operation exploded
Russia’s gas pipe line by deliberately creating errors in the software which
was controlling the gas pipe lines. It was the biggest non nuclear explosion
ever.

There are countless examples which manifests hunger
for the data by many countries. Countries like USA, ISREAL, RUSSIA, CHINA, KOREA,
GERMAY, FRANCE etc have created a new division of army called CYBER ARMY just
to keep a vigil on other countries and to safeguard themselves from any cyber
espionage.

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

If matter and mind are but different aspects of a simple current of energy called life, what are the individual drops of living organisms known as you and I? We are separate bits of consciousness impelled to seek identity, through sympathetic understanding with the unified consciousness of the whole.

Listen to the modern Hindu philosopher, Vivekananda “This separation between man and man, man and woman, man and child, nation from nation , earth from moon, moon from sun, this separation…… does not exist, it is not real. It is merely apparent on the surface. In the heart of things there is unity still”.

Vivekananda defines this universal consciousness as God. “The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are his multiple forms. There is no other god to seek,” and the only way to seek him is to cherish- that is, to put yourself in the place of and thus to become identified with- your fellow men. “He alone serves God who serves all mankind”.

The contemplative self, which unites all the other selves within the individual, is like the white radiance which unites all the colours with the spectrum. And the contemplative self of the absolute is the radiant fusion of all the individuals in the universe.

And the whole, or the absolute self-call it God if yourself knows infinitely more than the part, or the individual self. The knowledge of god is to the performer of a sonata is to the knowledge of the listener. To the listener who cheers the melody for the first time, the progress of the composition has a past, a present and a future. The past is the part he has already heard, the present is the note he hears now, the future is the part he has not heard as yet. But to the performer, the entire sonata unites as a consistent and persistent present- a totally known to him at once in all its component parts. As the melody keeps on unfolding, we become gradually more and more aware of the general theme. We begin to see the inter-relationship between the parts and the whole- between you and me and essence of the world.

From the individual to the family, from family to the precinct, from the precinct to the state, from the state to the nation, from the nation to humanity, from humanity to all things, and from everything to God.

And what is the formula that fuses all these relatives into the absolute?

For the answer to this question let us visit the great French scientist, Laplace on his death bed. His friends are trying to console him with the importance of his discoveries and the celebrity of his books. “But these”, he shakes his head sadly, “are not the essentials things in life”. What then, they ask. And the old man, gasping for his final breath, whispers “LOVE”.

Let’s all live in peace and harmony, when nature defines no difference, why do we believe in it?

Thursday, 17 August 2017

Gone are the days when computer viruses only infected important files. But, 21st century has a more advanced level of technology. Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm, a weapon which had the potential to bring a modern society to its knees came into limelight in June 2010. A team of more than 6000 IT professionals tried to crack the code, but decoding was near to impossible. Reason being, it did not run anywhere, rather it used memory as a place to store and execute itself. Finally a talented and able team of mechanical engineers, software engineers and hardware engineers took more than 6 months to crack it. Unfortunately, no one was aware of the fact that it was a cyber-warfare. It was after 8-10 months, Symantec, an American software company headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States realized that it was the first digital weapon designed and released specifically to attack the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran.

Why Iran was targeted was the question that needed a satisfactory reply. When the reason was unveiled, it was surprising for all. Iran was pursuing its nuclear program without keeping USA in confidence. No nation could find a way out to cease it.

Then the world’s most extreme & powerful digital weapon came into existence which broke down 200000 computers in Iran within a month. The mission was carried forward so secretly that it controlled and destroyed the speed of centrifuges (used for enrichment of uranium) making scientists believe that everything was OK and under control. But it was just to befool them which resulted in the crash of the nuclear program of Iran.

FACTS ABOUT STUXNET

1. It took a team of 1000 professionals to work continuously for more than 3 months to code Stuxnet

It contained more than 15000 lines of code

2. It comprised of many viruses.

3. It was nearly impossible to decode Stuxnet.

4. It had a size of 500Kb which is almost the size of a ringtone.

5. It pushed back Iran’s nuclear program for 2 years and created havoc in the world. If Stuxnet was not founded and terminated on time then it would have exploded gas pipe lines, dams, water flow and electricity power grids.

Saturday, 12 August 2017

Children are the sons and daughters of life. They have come through us, but not from us. Though they are with us, yet they do not belong to us. We can just give them our love and care, but not our thoughts and dreams. We can house their bodies but not their souls, as their souls are sheltered and veiled by tomorrows. We may strive hard to match their trodden steps, but can never make them like we are, because life walks forward leaving the imprints of the past. We are mere bows from children as living arrows are sent forth but we cannot decide their aim. We can only guide them, raise them, love them, nourish them with values and teach them the essence of life which we have gained from our experiences. We cannot build smooth roads for them, we can only prepare them for the roads. It is the life which determines that what they would be in future.

They are not ours, they do not reflect us in completion. It is life that makes each of them own individuals. Let them make mistakes, realise the experience, use their wisdom, so that they begin thinking about the consequences of the decisions they would take in future.

They must understand that life would make them stand at a cross road where they have to decide on which of two irrevocable life-choices they would make.

Let’s make them confident decision makers who bravely shoulder the responsibility of the consequences, and are ready to fight back with their heads held high in adversities.

We are just their parents, facilitators and mentors, but not the master of their destiny.

Friday, 11 August 2017

Expressing your views about a particular topic has always been a hard thing to do. Even if it’s a fundamental right, we always have the lack of complete virtue to express it or to show it to someone as a vision. Then came “The Cinema”, a platform that allows us to express everything or anything wrong that we want to remove from the society.

Cinema had an influence on the society when it was introduced and it still has so, mainly focused on to the young generation and the conditions are currently favorable to the cinematic cause because now that countries have started sharing their culture with the other cultures of the world cinema is the link which helps someone differentiate or find something common in each other’s culture.

Cinema is not always about culture sharing. Nowadays a different cause is also visible in the stream of cinema. It has now stared developing ideas motivating the generation it targets the most, making people believe in themselves by movies like 3 Idiots, and Udaan. Cinema is not only motivating people to believe in themselves but also gives them a look into a different life into a world of a sportsman or an important personality which gives us an example of the struggle that they went through to become what they have become today. Movies like M.S.Dhoni , Sachin, a billion dreams , Bhagh Milkha Bhagh are some excellent examples of this category.

Criticism is what came to cinema after its popularity but one thing that we always forget about cinema is that every coin has 2 sides but cinema was never meant to show the second, the negative one. The criticism that cinema faces is only due to the fact that people are the one who have control of what they want to choose. Some take the positivity as an extract from the movies but there are also some who are at the wrong side of the track.

The only thing that is to be said to them is “you made your decision and now it’s time for the decision to influence you.”

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

Is School about learning about the high-brow wonders of Nietzsche and the French Revolution? Becoming an educated member of society? Or was Mark Twain right when he said:

I’ve never let my schooling interfere with my education.

What do we mean when we’re say “getting grades” or “focusing on right or wrong answers”?

Well part of the reason for attending college and going through a degree program is to receive some sort of accreditation to prove that you know something about a certain amount of knowledge. You holding your diploma in your hand is not just a photo-op moment with your proud parents marking a transition into the next phase of your life, it’s also the moment you become recognized for having learnt the fundamentals. Let’s say civil Engineering, so now you can take that diploma back home and go in search of a real-life bridge-building engineering position at URS Corp., or HDR etc. You’ve proven yourself to the occupational or the professional world. So how do we know you know what you claim you know? By conducting some sort of evaluation or some metric of performance or maybe a grade on a test perhaps. If you’re going to college with something like that as your end-goal, focusing on getting the right answers and scoring well in exams is an absolute must. And in most technical degree programs, there is a definitive body of knowledge, whether in Engineering, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, that you need to master, which does have a set of “right” answers as currently agreed upon by the worldwide science community.

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s move on to the “learning” aspect.

Well I think here people are talking about having an educated life, working towards a higher-level human-interest-driven pinnacle of intellectual achievement, being sophisticated and fluently expressing views on politics, philosophy etc. First of all is this really something we want to strive for, or has the education we are searching for has been co-opted by the academic community? I may not know much about the whole sophisticated part but becoming an all-rounder is a must. This means you can relate to people, you can have a general conversation, and you can logically navigate real world problems, it’s not just about manipulating numbers and designing variables. Yes, being educated is very important and learning about history, philosophy etc is a part of it but should this be our main focus of our time dedicated towards our degree program? Should this even need to occur at a university? Learning and being educated is the most important thing in our lives as it is giving you a vehicle to fully experience your life.

The thing is, we do this naturally, and I don’t agree that college is the best medium to fulfill this essential life skill. I definitely agree that grades are very important if you want to be an intellectual or an academician, but I generally feel the main learning happens outside the classroom by reading interesting books, exploring side projects. Grades should be our primary focus but there’s a way to do it, if you get your grades first and foremost, and do it efficiently, then there will be an abundance of time for you to explore reading, side projects, research opportunities, clubs, sports, co-ops and internships, etc. For you to “learn” in the truest sense of the word which also by no means stops when you exit college if you do it right. So follow Mark Twain, get your “schooling” taken care of, and you’ll have plenty of time to get your “education”. So my dear all, we must strive better to be an educated person rather than just being a literate one.

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

No significant learning takes place without a successful relationship and there cannot be a better relationship for the learning other than the Student-Teacher relationship. Education is based upon the two important pillars, one a student and other a teacher. A true and sound education can flourish only when the student-teacher relationship is positive, coherent and going in a right direction. It is like a two way traffic through which the destination of Education which is learning and development is achieved. Success of a student is based upon the three important factors---- student’s own hard work and dedication, teacher’s role in imparting education and the parents’ and school’s role to provide the essential financial, emotional and environmental support to their ward. The success of a student can be compared to a triangle of success, in which student, teacher and parents and external environment form the three sides and the student is not merely a side, but the very base of this triangle without which it cannot be formed.

Now, the question may arise that are these factors sufficient enough to make a child successful. The answer to this question is that a student who sets his goals and ambitions, strives hard for them throughout life until and unless he achieves them, dedicates his soul and breath for his success, pays due attention to what his teachers say and always tries to follow them, respects them and give them a divine place in his life, emulates their positive qualities and never argues badly or never shows any sort of arrogance actually paves his way to be a successful being in life. A student has to be an all-rounder and not a book-worm to be successful. He must participate in physical and other co-curricular activates like sports, games, gymnastics, dramatics, debate or any sort of competitions. He has to be always on his toes to accept the challenges and to face them with a lion’s heart. Then only he can be an impressive teacher, a doctor, an I.A.S officer, a good politician or else a scientist and make his nation proud by his excellent contribution towards it.